late at night
by Blueberry Minizzle
Summary: Ratliff and Rydel are in denial- well, sort of. Rydellington, past Kellington


**Hii! It's me, Mini! It's my first Rydellington fiction, guys ^.^ Who's excited?**

**I hope you all enjoy it! I spend more time then usual on it (three days- normally it takes me about an hour or two to write something down, when the inspiration strikes)**

**I also have a sequel for this in the works, called _shout it out from the rooftops. _It's already twice as long as this piece and I've been working on it for at least a month. Tell me if you want me to publish it (when it's done, obviously) or not :) Oh, and the sequel will probably also feature a little bit of Raura!**

**Title: **_late at night_

**Pairing: **_Rydellington, past Kellington_

**Rating: **_T_

**Genre: **_Romance/ Friendship/ Hurt/Comfort/ Humor_

**Summary: **_Ratliff and Rydel are in denial- well, sort of._

**Disclaimer:**_ I don't own anything except for the plot! English is not my native language so it'd be really nice if you could look out for mistakes! ^.^_

Rydel+ Ellington

_(It started with a whisper/ and that was when I kissed her- Everybody Talks, Neon Trees)_

"I'm so sorry, Kelly** (1)**"

He never calls her Kelly. She's Kel or Kelster or sometimes even Kelhuna **(2)** but never Kelly.

He sighs heavily, guilt weighting on his chest.

"It's okay", she says and doesn't sound angry, "I always saw it coming. It was unavoidable"

"I'm sorry"

"I know you are. I am too", she's whispering now and she may not be angry but she's still sad, "bye, Ellington"

She never calls him Ellington. He was always only Ratliff to her.

"Bye, Kelly", he says and ends the call.

* * *

See, to understand this phone call you need to know three people.

1. Kelly Voosen

Kelly Voosen, also known as Kel, Kelster or occasionally Kelhuna is the girl on the other end of Ratliffs phone. She's very short and very pretty and they'd been longer than he could remember.

(Actually it had been exactly 2 years, 4 months and 1 week **(3)**)

2. Ellington Lee Ratliff (himself)

Ellington Ratliff, the guy that everybody calls by his last name, is known for his humor and his randomness. He is a part of the band R5 and an almost member of the Lynch family. He's also the jerk that just broke up with his girlfriend of 2 years, 4 months and 1 week because he is in love with another girl.

Which leads to the third and final person.

3. Rydel Mary Lynch

Rydel Mary Lynch is a part of the Lynch family and a part of R5- the same band in which Ratliff plays his drums. She's perky and beautiful and wonderful and a whole bunch of other flattering adjectives. She's the only girl in her family (apart from her mother) and has to deal with four brothers **(4)** 24/7 which only makes her more amazing (at least in Ratliff's view) and she has a rather unhealthy obsession with Hello Kitty and the color pink.

She's also the girl that he'd fallen in love with.

* * *

Ratliff sighs again and looks at his phone sadly.

This is not how he wants his first relationship to end. Actually he'd never wanted it to end either. He never thought that it would. He believed that he was going to marry this girl, get a bunch of kids with her, live happily ever after.

But he doesn't love her anymore. He isn't going to let their happy ever after be a lie.

It's not that he hates her all of sudden or anything, he really doesn't. He still likes her a lot- that's exactly why he just broke up with her.

He would never do that to her. Lying about loving her and everything, that wasn't his style. He's not breaking her heart like that it'd be just wrong.

* * *

He goes back into the bus to relax and be alone for a while- Rydel and the boys are out to explore New York **(5)**.

He had a long day. It started with him waking up too early **(6)**, only to find Rydel in the kitchen in nothing but a pair of short pajama pants and a tank top, preparing some cereal for herself. She greeted him cheerfully, complete missing his open jaw and wide eyes as she brushed past him.

He swallows thickly at the memory.

They'd practiced all day long for their concert tomorrow at Irving Plaza **(5)** and by the end of the day- when he was to tired to think straight- he'd catched himself staring at Rydel too many times.

And that was the point where he couldn't lie to himself anymore. He couldn't deny the that he had feelings for this girl even though she was not his girlfriend (and she wore decent clothes now so he couldn't blame it on the hormones either)

That's when he decided to break up with Kelly

He's ready for some hot chocolate and a bunch of video games to play away the guilt.

He does not expect to see Rydel in front of the TV, watching_ Titanic _**(7)**and eating chocolate brownie ice cream **(8)** out of the box. Used tissues are surrounding her and she's crying.

"What the-"

"Shhht", she shushes him," this is my favorite part"

Her eyes are still glued to the screen, ice cream forgotten in her hands. She's not wearing any make-up and has her pajamas on again- this time with a bathrobe, thankfully.

Ratliff is still having trouble comprehending the situation. Why isn't she out with her brothers? **(9)** And why is she crying?

He shakes his head to clear his thoughts.

Sighing, he decides to just accept that he won't be alone tonight to sulk in self-pity and goes to the small kitchen to grab himself a spoon before plopping down next to Rydel (aka the emotional mess in pink PJ's).

At least he can blame potential tears on the movie.

"May I?", he asks shyly and points at the ice cream.

"Don't be so polite!", the emotional mess snaps but hands him the ice cream anyways.

* * *

"So, what's going on?", he asks as the credits roll. He held her throughout the whole movie, trying to soothe her but all he got was punching. She really isn't the girl to be hesitant about hitting guys (she grew up with 4 brothers after all) but he'd never received as much as tonight.

"Are you on your period or something?"

She shoots him a dirty look and he holds up his hands in defense.

"No, I'm not! I'm fine!", she crosses her arms over her chest and huffs.

"No, you're not", he argues because he's known her for 4 years **(10)** and she's never been like this before (not even when she was on her period)

"I can't tell you"

He's hurt now. She's always told him everything right away. What happened to that? Didn't she trust him anymore?

"Why not?"

Her eyes flutter to the ceiling as fresh tears form in them.

"Well, there's this boy...", she starts hesitantly and Ratliffs heart cracks a bit. He watches as she look down, her long hair covering her face but he sees the teardrops anyways. She angrily rubs them away trying her hardest not to cry.

"I don't really want to talk to you about boy problems"

"Why not? I give awesome advice!", he jokes because as much as it kills him, he needs to know more about this boy. She giggles a bit but shakes her head.

"What kind of boy?", he asks and suddenly straightens up, "What'd he do to you? Whose ass am I kicking?"

She laughs through the tears and shakes her head again.

"You're kicking no one's ass. No, he didn't do anything wrong, it's just", she sighs, "I shouldn't have fallen for him"

"Fallen?", he asks weakly, "Like in 'falling in love'?"

"What other kind of falling?"

And there it is. She's already in love with someone else. He should have known.

"H-he has a girlfriend", she whimpers and then puts her hand over her mouth because she sounds so pitiful.

He sighs and tries to hide his own heart break. Hers is more important.

He opens his arms.

"C'mere"

And so she sinks onto his chest and grabs a fistful of his shirt, violent sobs shaking her whole body. Her crying is muffled and she tries her hardest not to scream because _this whole situation is just so ironic_.

He tries to comfort her with words at first but then just settles for stroking her hair in a soothing manner until she calms down a bit.

She keeps her head on his chest though. Not that he'd remove his arms from her waist. This position is just too comfortable for both of them but it hurts at the same time (not physically though)

"He's a jerk. How can he have a girlfriend when he could have you?"

"I'm nothing special", she says, "but his girlfriend- she's wonderful. She's pretty and funny and cute and she's got it all. I haven't even had a boyfriend yet and I'm going to be twenty soon! **(11)**"

"That doesn't mean anything! Maybe all the boys that like you are just to shy to ask you out or something. Come on, Rydel, look at yourself! You're a part of R5, the band with the rising popularity", she laughs at his sarcastic enthusiasm, "You're a strong, young woman, you dance like no one else **(12)**, you can sing like an angel and you're so beautiful that I can't even find anything to compare you with! Screw Gisele Bündchen and Kate Moss and Candice Swanepoel and all those skinny sticks on the catwalks- you're a thousand times more beautiful, Rydel"

She doesn't really know how to reply to that. She just looks at him, wide-eyed and he thinks that maybe he should've kept the last part to himself. Not because it' not true (because it is, it really is) but because she's in love with another boy and his compliments were just a tad to flattering.

"...should I be concerned that you know so many models?", she says finally and he takes the breath that he didn't know that he'd been holding.

He rolls his eyes as she laughs.

"I didn't break up with Kelly because of _that_"

Her laughter stops.

"You broke up with her?"

He really shouldn't be up this late at night. He's telling her all the things that he wanted to keep to himself.

He sighs again and runs his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah, I did. It just didn't work anymore. I-I fell for another girl"

They're quiet for a little while and at one point she leans against his chest again and his arm finds his way on her waist.

"Who is she?"

"Who?"

"The girl you fell for"

He swallows thickly.

"I can't tell"

"Describe her"

"Well, sh-she's awesome. A bit strange but that's just another thing I love about her. She's kind of childish and she doesn't care what people think about her- she's pretty careless in general. She has the most contagious smile and her sheer presence lights up the whole room. She's beautiful like no one else but she doesn't believe it. And I'd do anything to make her see how beautiful she really is"

They fall into silence once again.

"She's a lucky girl", Rydel says and it sounds a bit wistful but she smiles up at him nonetheless.

He would like to smile back and say that she's the lucky girl but he can't.

"She's in love with someone else"

"Did she tell you?"

He nods grimly.

"But the jerk already has a girlfriend"

Something clicks. Realization sinks into both their minds as they try to process what he just said.

He holds his breath.

"Is it-"

"Rydel, I-"

They stop and look at each other. He's still holding his breath.

"It's me", she whispers.

She doesn't yell at him. She doesn't punch him and she doesn't dump the half-melted ice cream on his head.

He takes that as a good sign.

"Rydel, I'm sorry- I shouldn't have said that. I know, you don't feel the same way and everything, I am _so_ sorry-"

"He doesn't have a girlfriend anymore"

"What?"

"The boy I'm in love with. He broke with his girlfriend because he fell for another girl. I think that it's me. The girl he fell for is me"

They look at each other again but this time there's a sparkle in her eyes.

And then she leans in.

* * *

Rydel's first kiss **(13)** is definitely not perfect because they're in a tour bus and she's in her pink pajamas and the TV is still on with _My heart will go on_ playing quietly in the background. There are used tissues surrounding them and she's not wearing any make-up to cover up the horrible poufy eyes that she got from crying her out over a boy who was in love with her all along.

But she doesn't care. It's still somehow perfect because it's sparks and fireworks and all that chlichéd stuff (and she swears there's even a helicopter flying above them **(14)**) so technically her first kiss is exactly like he predicted that it would be-

Awesome **(14)**

(He was the one to take care of it after all)

**1- Kelly Voosen is Ratliffs official girlfriend. And for the sake of this story, let's just pretend that they break up like that, kay? (I like Kellington, they're cute but come on, _Rydellington_! I just love them!)**

**2- I did not make up these names by myself. They're the creation of Orazio Zorzotto aka Razza from the Ishmael-Series by Michael Gerard Bauer. Ratliff and Razza are kinda alike and Razza invented these names for a girl named Kelly so why not? Oh and I really recommend the books, they're absolutely awesome ^.^**

**3- I got absolutely no idea how long they've been dating, so that number is made up.**

**4- Rydel really has 4 brothers- Riker, her big brother and Rocky, Ross and Ryland who are all younger than her.**

**5- This story is set on the 13th of April 2013 one day before R5 plays at Irving Plaza, NY. So throughout the whole one-shot they're still on the Loud-Tour and everything, kay?**

**6- This was mentioned in an interview- they were asked who sleeps the latest and Ratliff pointed at everyone but himself and Rydel and then made this cute motion between them and said something like: "Rydel and I are always up early". Dunno, I thought it was cute ^.^**

**7- Believe it or not but I never saw that movie!**

**8- Ben&Jerry's! Booya!**

**9- I never actually wrote down the answer to this question... so I guess, Rydel saw Ratliff talking to Kelly over the phone and that broke her heart all over again T.T**

**10- I'm not sure about that... Rydel said something like that, so about 4 years, maybe 5 by now.**

**11- This is true- Rydel is like, 19 and a half and she's never had a boyfriend. I really don't get it, she's absolutely gorgeous! Oh, well.**

**12- She's so talented at dancing! There's a video on youtube, you gotta watch it!**

**13- Also true- she hasn't had her first kiss yet!**

**14- This was said in their interview about their first kisses for Popstar Magazine- it has so many Rydellington moments, you should go and watch it!**

**********Thanks for reading, review if you liked it or if you have something to say! You can find me on twitter, instagram and tumblr as well, just check my profile for the details ^.^  
**

**********I love you all, you're absolutly A-Mazing :)**

**********Stay crazy and be happy ^.^**


End file.
